Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The bad: Very little of the $40K price tag is invested in the Shelby's scruffy, plastic-trimmed cabin.

The bottom line: The 2007 Ford Shelby GT is a retro-styled rocket ship that will appeal to driving purists. If cabin comfort is more important than 500 horsepower, look elsewhere. If not, join the back of the wait list.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The city’s second snow storm of the season quickly turned to slush, but area airports and airlines, including Jet Blue, were left facing delays.

LaGuardia is still experiencing 90-minute delays on arriving flights.

JetBlue handed out $100 vouchers to about 100 passengers who were stuck on a runway at JFK last night.

The vouchers are part of the company's new customer "bill of rights" that was put in place after the Valentine's Day storm when hundreds of JetBlue passengers were stuck on planes for as long as ten hours.

Last night, JetBlue cancelled nearly 70 flights into and out of Kennedy Airport for today.

Passengers can rebook through Thursday or request refunds or credit for future travel.

Meanwhile, the city deployed 2,000 plows, 365 salt spreaders and thousands of employees to make sure this storm did not cripple the city.

Alternate side of the street parking rules were also suspended for the day.

There's a short blurb over at Infoworld about a new wireless doorbell that actually hooks up your doorbell to a cellular phone system. This way, when the doorbell rings, it can alert your mobile phone -- and you can talk to whoever is at your door and even let them in remotely if you're not home. While at first, that might not sound all that special, it does demonstrate how wireless technology is going well beyond its original uses. Most people think of how mobile phones enabled them to do what they did before (talk on the phone), but do it while mobile. But what can often be more interesting is how such mobility allows for entirely new applications and services that simply couldn't exist before. That's not to say that the wireless doorbell is all that useful. In fact, I'm not sure there's really all that much demand for it. But, it's still encouraging to see people experimenting with allowing new types of products and services built on top of what the last generation of technology allows. For all the talk of how the mobile phone market was becoming saturated due to so many people owning phones, for those who view it as a starting platform for much more interesting offerings, it seems like there's plenty of potential.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

No one would mistake the Ask a Jew guy for Lonelygirl15, but these days YouTube contributor Shmuel Tennenhaus is feeling like a hot commodity.

Mr. Tennenhaus, an aspiring comedy writer who gained a modest following on YouTube for his droll question-and-answer clips and other spots featuring his grandmother “Bubby,” is being wooed by the site’s competitors, including Metacafe, ManiaTV and others, with promises of guaranteed exposure, a share of advertising money, or both.

“It’s all very odd,” said Mr. Tennenhaus, speaking from Hallandale, Fla. His YouTube channel, Oneparkave, has logged roughly 32,000 visits and a few hundred subscribers since last fall. “My parents say I’m special, but I can’t imagine I’m the only guy they’re contacting.”

He has that right. The most popular YouTubers, who have generated millions of visits and tens of thousands of subscribers, say they have received overtures from multiple sites. And YouTube, meanwhile, appears ready to respond to the challenge.

“I think everybody that has a site has contacted me,” said Paul Robinett, whose YouTube persona Renetto has attracted 1.19 million views and more than 23,000 subscribers. Mr. Robinett, who is based in Columbus, Ohio, and frequently posts commentaries on YouTube-related issues, said: “They’re not throwing a ton of money around. It’s kind of chump change. And I haven’t responded because I know revenue-sharing is coming to YouTube.”

Few performers will divulge what kind of money is being thrown around. But Metacafe pays $5 for every 1,000 views, with their most popular acts netting tens of thousands of dollars, figures that the site will mention when trying to persuade YouTube stars to defect.

In January, YouTube’s co-founder, Chad Hurley, said the company would in the coming months begin sharing advertising revenue with contributors. The company last week said it would not elaborate on that plan, or on the efforts of competitors to lure its contributors away.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Nauseated New Yorkers recoilat Taco Bell/KFC rodent partyIt was enough to make you choke on your chalupa.

To the disgust of millions who watched on TV or in person, a gang of brazen rats took over a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in Greenwich Village yesterday - scampering across tables like they owned the joint.

The vermin slid down the backs of chairs, left trails of droppings on the floor and glared at passersby through the window until health inspectors shut down the eatery on Sixth Ave. near W. Fourth St.

"I just ate there last night - I think I'm going to be sick," said Earl Heffintrayer, 29. "I'll never come back here again."

The invasion began a little after midnight, while the restaurant was closed, creating a public relations nightmare for Taco Bell just two months after an E.Coli outbreak at the chain.

Photographers and TV crews descended on the scene - and it almost seemed like the 20-odd rodents were playing to the crowd.

At one point, as a Daily News reporter pressed close to the window, a rat hopped over, stood on its hind legs, put its paws against the glass and stared back.

Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix became the country's first to begin testing a controversial new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies in an effort to find concealed explosives and other weapons. It can see through people's clothes and show the body's contours with blush-inducing clarity. The technology could be in place at Kennedy Airport by the end of the year.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

After years of delays and billions in development and marketing efforts, it would seem that Microsoft Corp. would want anyone who possibly can to buy its new Windows Vista operating system. Yet Microsoft is making it hard for Mac owners and other potentially influential customers to adopt the software.

Microsoft says the blockade is necessary for security reasons. But that is disputed. The circumstances might simply reflect a business decision Microsoft doesn't want to explain.

The situation involves a technology known as virtualization. Essentially, it lets one computer mimic multiple machines, even ones with different operating systems. It does this by running multiple applications at the same time, but in separate realms of the computer.

Virtualization has long been used in corporate data centers as a way to increase server efficiency or to test programs in a walled-off portion of a machine. The technology also has been available for home users, but often at the expense of the computer's performance.

But now that Macintosh computers from Apple Inc. use Intel Corp. chips, just like Windows-based PCs, virtualization programs let Mac users easily switch back and forth between Apple's Mac OS X operating system and Windows. That could appeal to Mac enthusiasts who want access to programs that only work on Windows, including some games.

Consequently, the launch of Vista seemed to be a good opportunity for Parallels Inc., a subsidiary of SWsoft Inc. that sells virtualization products.

The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, has signed up more than 1 million volunteers worldwide in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They've found no aliens yet, but they have at least turned up one missing laptop.

The Berkeley effort, better known as SETI(at)home, uses volunteers' computers when they go into screen-saver mode to crunch data from the Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico. The computers are trying to spot signals in the radio noise from space.

One volunteer, James Melin, a software programmer for a county government agency in Minnesota, runs SETI(at)home on his seven home computers, which periodically check in with University of California servers. Whenever that happens, the servers record the remote computer's Internet Protocol address and file it in a database that people running the SETI software can view.

One of the computers on which Melin installed SETI(at)home is his wife's laptop, which was stolen from the couple's Minneapolis home Jan. 1.

Annoyed - and alarmed that someone could delete the screenplays and novels that his wife, Melinda Kimberly, was writing - Melin monitored the SETI(at)home database to see if the stolen laptop would "talk" to the Berkeley servers. Indeed, the laptop checked in three times within a week, and Melin sent the IP addresses to the Minneapolis Police Department.

After a subpoena to a local Internet provider, police determined the real-world address where the stolen laptop was logging on. Within days, officers seized the computer and returned it. No one had been arrested as of Wednesday and the case remains under investigation, said Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department.

Kimberly's writings were safe, and the thieves didn't appear to have broken into her e-mail or other personal folders. But the returned computer contained 20 tracks of rap music with unintelligible lyrics, possibly from the person who stole the computer or bought it on the underground.

"I always knew that a geek would make a great husband," she said. "He always backed up all my data, but this topped it all. It became like `Mission: Impossible' for him, looking for hard evidence for the cops to use. ... He's a genius - my hero."

The attorney deciding where Anna Nicole Smith will be buried said Thursday the model will be laid to rest in the Bahamas, but her estranged mother planned an appeal. Richard Milstein, the court-appointed guardian of Smith's baby daughter, announced the plans not long after a judge gave him control of Smith's final resting place. He said "our intention is that the burial will take place next to her son Daniel'' in the Bahamas. He gave no timeframe.VIDEO: Tearful Judge Rules on Body

Anna Nicole Smith will be buried in the Bahamas, alongside her dead son, it was announced Thursday after a tearful judge left the decision up to the guardian for the model’s baby daughter.

Richard Milstein, the court-appointed guardian of Smith’s baby daughter, announced the plans not long after a judge gave him control of Smith’s final resting place. He gave no timeframe.

“I want her to be buried with her son in the Bahamas. I want them to be together,” said Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin, steering a surprise middle course in a dispute that became more urgent by the day when the medical examiner warned that Smith’s body was rapidly decomposing.

Monday, February 19, 2007

XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. have agreed to merge, the two companies said Monday.

The deal would consolidate the only two companies in the emerging business of subscription-only satellite radio, and is sure to face tough scrutiny from federal regulators. Investors and analysts have been speculating about a deal for months.

The two companies said in a statement that Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius, would become chief executive of the new company while Gary Parsons, the chairman of XM, would remain in that role.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made an about-face on parking tickets issued to drivers whose cars were stuck in the snow after Wednesday’s storm.

The city has now decided to forgive all alternate side parking tickets for yesterday, and today.

The mayor’s decision to keep alternate side parking rules in effect following the snow storm drew serious criticism. Many drivers argued the ice and snow made it nearly impossible to dig their cars out.

The mayor said yesterday moving cars was important for the plows to do their job.

"In retrospect, in some parts of the city, there was not that much snow and in other parts there probably was an imposition,” the mayor said on his morning radio show today. “We did get a lot of calls and listened very carefully to what the Sanitation Department heard, what our community assistance unit heard, we took a look at the call that came in to 311 and … this morning I instructed the Department of Finance to waive any Alternate Side of the Street parking tickets for yesterday and today."

Tickets issued on Wednesday during the storm still have to be paid.

Tickets from today and yesterday will be automatically taken out of the city's computer.

As much as we'd like to see Apple try its hand at the subnotebook game once more (and don't y'all haters deny that at the time the 12-inch PowerBook was a subby), we are getting a little bored that the rumor, much like the iPhone before it, refuses to give way. AppleInsider is re-reporting by way of supposed insiders that Stevie's engineers are hard at work on a new MacBook with the fresh set of specs we've heard many a time to date: no integrated optical drive, solid state disk (resulting in increased battery life and system performance), sleek, slender body, widescreen display, and now a mid-year launch, presumably aligned with WWDC. We've heard this song and dance before (and we'll surely hear it again), so keep your wallet-carrying trousers on

ConAgra Foods told consumers on Wednesday to discard certain jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter after a salmonella outbreak sickened almost 300 people.

Lids of jars with product codes beginning 2111 can be returned to ConAgra for a refund, the company said. The salmonella outbreak, which federal health officials said had sickened 288 people in 39 states since August, was linked to tainted peanut butter from a factory in Sylvester, Ga.

Carl Icahn has learned yet again that a little saber rattling can offer very rich rewards.

Though the billionaire activist investor was unsuccessful in his efforts to break up media giant Time Warner, he got himself a sweet consolation prize in the form of nearly $880 million, a regulatory filing shows.

Icahn earned that sum by the end of last year when he pared down his holdings in TW by selling roughly 35 million shares, or 65 percent of his total stake, in the world's largest media company.

The financier still holds 20 million Time Warner shares valued at $433 million based on yesterday's $21.65 close.

When Icahn launched his campaign against TW on Aug. 15, 2005, the company's shares had gone three years without touching $20, closing that day at $18.50.

Icahn's antagonism, which included claiming that Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons wasn't a media guy, provided just the jump start that the company needed.

TONY Danza was onstage in "The Producers" Wednesday night when two women in the audience started filming his performance. "Tony warned them, shaking his finger and mouthing 'please stop' - but they waved the camera in his face," a tipster reports. When the curtain came down, Danza told them to "get the hell out." Danza's rep said, "As any theater patron should know, it is prohibited to film in the theater, not to mention it is very distracting to the actors. Tony did his best to politely ask these women to stop filming, unfortunately to no avail."

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Florida Judge Orders New DNA Test on Anna Nicole Smith's Body in Fight Over Her RemainsA judge ordered another DNA sample be taken from Anna Nicole Smith's body Thursday as he heard often fiery arguments in the fight over the former Playboy Playmate's remains and custody of her infant daughter.

The swab of Smith's cheek was to be taken in the afternoon, despite the objections of attorneys for her longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, and her estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, and testimony from the medical examiner and DNA experts that such an additional sample was likely not necessary.

Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin said he wanted to make sure all samples were taken before Smith was buried, so her body wouldn't have to be exhumed.

"When we bury her, I want it to be forever," he said in the second day of an emergency hearing.

Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel.

As the proceedings dragged on, investigators in the Bahamas went into a mansion that Stern and Smith shared, though the officers declined to say why they were there. Stern filed a burglary report claiming a computer, home videos and other items were taken from the house after Smith's death.

Stern claims he is executor of Smith's will and wants to have her buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Arthur wants her daughter buried in her home state of Texas.

"She sits here today to take her to Texas and put her in the ground all alone … and it's sad and it's sick," Stern's lawyer, Krista Barth, told the judge in attacking Smith's mother.

Arthur's attorney, Stephen Tunstall, said his client "wants to take her home to Texas to bury her with the rest of her family." Arthur wiped tears away outside an elevator during a break in the proceedings.

Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes DNA taken from Smith will help prove he fathered the former centerfold's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions.

February 15, 2007 -- A Bronx mother has filed an $80 million lawsuit against her landlord, saying her apartment was so infested with rats she was forced to sleep with her infant son, causing him to die in her bed of suffocation.

Gladys Robles says she slept with 6-week-old son Cristian Nunez to prevent him from being attacked by rats in her third-floor apartment on Arthur Avenue, which is owned by Palazzolo Realty Corp., court papers show. The mother maintains in papers filed yesterday at Bronx Supreme Court that Palazzolo knew of "hazardous rodent infestation" in the apartment and didn't stop it, leading to the death of little Cristian on Jan. 28.

Were you on the plane? Had you been, what would you have done? Tell us by clicking 'Discussion Board' below the photo.

We've heard of jet lag, but this was ridiculous.

Hundreds of JetBlue passengers at Kennedy Airport yesterday spent the most romantic day of the year trapped on at least seven planes stuck on the ground - some for more than 10 hours.

JetBlue blamed the incredible Valentine's Day delays on the weather. Empty jets were frozen to the ground, blocking the gates to inbound flights. Departing flights that did escape were unable to get airborne because conditions suddenly changed - and their gates had been filled by other airplanes.

HE'S got the biggest living room in the city, but for his coronation last night as the new king of Wall Street, buyout billionaire Stephen Schwarzman rented the cavernous Park Avenue Armory and felt right at home there - he decorated it as his palatial parlor.

Some 500 guests toasted Schwarzman on his 60th birthday, hailing him for reeling in the world's biggest buyout just four days earlier: the $39 billion deal involving commercial-building empire Equity Office Group. It broke the long-held record of financier Henry Kravis, who turned down his invite.

Those who came enjoyed a $1 million private concert by Rod Stewart, free-flowing wine and nonstop courses of gourmet feasting in a party said to top $3 million.

YEARS before she transformed herself into CNBC's "Money Honey" and got caught up in the recent Citigroup jet-travel mess, Maria Bartiromo was a big-haired, boy-teasing, high-school honey who cheated on her squeeze and nearly caused a Brooklyn gang rumble.

"Maria and I grew up in Dyker Heights. She was the girlfriend of Joey Maria, who ran with the 13th Avenue Boys, a group of toughs that hung on the corner of 13th and 78th," a longtime Page Six source said.

"Joey was a handsome, wiry thing, a very cool kid. Maria [a student at the Catholic all-girl Fontbonne Hall Academy on Shore Road] was a gorgeous thingy whose eyes melted all the guys' hearts."

Our source, a member of the rival "7th Avenue Boys," said: "Maria was always there on Joey's arm, all Jordache'd up in heels. She had a great bum, too, but even though she dressed like a hot chick . . . inside she was a real down-to-earth, intelligent sweetheart."

One day in the '80s, "We were just talking innocently, then started flirting, and then some full-on making out that got to about second base. I was in heaven. She was a great kisser. We thought the concrete handball walls provided cover, but it didn't - somebody saw us and told Joey . . . Rumors started spreading the 13th Avenue guys were going to come down to kick my ass."

As the 7th Avenue Boys were boozing and listening to a boom box in the woods of the Dyker Beach Golf Course that night, the 13th Avenue mob showed. "We were surrounded," our source relates. "Joey accused me of making out with Maria. Naturally I told him, 'You're [bleeping] crazy.' It looked like it was going to turn into an all-out brawl when . . . Maria starts yelling at Joey that he's being stupid, she loves him . . . and would never make out with anyone else, let alone [me] and that she brought her girlfriend along so he could hear it from her.

YEARS before she transformed herself into CNBC's "Money Honey" and got caught up in the recent Citigroup jet-travel mess, Maria Bartiromo was a big-haired, boy-teasing, high-school honey who cheated on her squeeze and nearly caused a Brooklyn gang rumble.

"Maria and I grew up in Dyker Heights. She was the girlfriend of Joey Maria, who ran with the 13th Avenue Boys, a group of toughs that hung on the corner of 13th and 78th," a longtime Page Six source said.

"Joey was a handsome, wiry thing, a very cool kid. Maria [a student at the Catholic all-girl Fontbonne Hall Academy on Shore Road] was a gorgeous thingy whose eyes melted all the guys' hearts."

Our source, a member of the rival "7th Avenue Boys," said: "Maria was always there on Joey's arm, all Jordache'd up in heels. She had a great bum, too, but even though she dressed like a hot chick . . . inside she was a real down-to-earth, intelligent sweetheart."

One day in the '80s, "We were just talking innocently, then started flirting, and then some full-on making out that got to about second base. I was in heaven. She was a great kisser. We thought the concrete handball walls provided cover, but it didn't - somebody saw us and told Joey . . . Rumors started spreading the 13th Avenue guys were going to come down to kick my ass."

As the 7th Avenue Boys were boozing and listening to a boom box in the woods of the Dyker Beach Golf Course that night, the 13th Avenue mob showed. "We were surrounded," our source relates. "Joey accused me of making out with Maria. Naturally I told him, 'You're [bleeping] crazy.' It looked like it was going to turn into an all-out brawl when . . . Maria starts yelling at Joey that he's being stupid, she loves him . . . and would never make out with anyone else, let alone [me] and that she brought her girlfriend along so he could hear it from her.

A technology publication situated in Taiwan is reiterating its claim that Apple Inc. next quarter will expand its consumer line of 'MacBook' notebooks to include a 15.4-inch model.

Citing industry sources, the publication said the new model will fill the gap between the company's 13.3-inch MacBooks and the 15.4- and 17-inch MacBook Pros in an effort to boost shipments of the Intel-based notebooks.

MacBook shipments, which enjoyed substantial gains in the second half of 2006, will reach 700,000 units in the first quarter of 2007, according to the report. Meanwhile, expectations for unit shipments for the remainder of the year are said to be 'even greater' following the introduction of the 15.4-inch model.

"Prices for the 15.4-inch MacBook models are likely to be more competitive than their 13.3-inch counterparts, due largely to the relatively lower cost of 15.4-inch LCD panels, and will therefore help push further sales of MacBooks," the publication said.

While iPod and electronics maker Foxconn (Hon Hai) was rumored to have been in the running for the lucrative 15.4-inch manufacturing contract, it was eventually unsuccessful, DigiTimes added. Instead, MacBook Pro maker Quanta Computer is reported to have landed the winning bid and will join Asustek Computer as a second supplier of MacBooks.

The accuracy of the report is currently unknown, as DigiTimes has historically been inaccurate in its predictions on Apple's future hardware directions. However, it should be noted that one of the publication's most recent claims, regarding the use of LED backlit displays in a future MacBook Pro designs, is reportedly accurate.

According to AppleInsider's own sources, Apple next quarter will introduce a revision to its 15-inch MacBook Pro that will mark a gradual transition away from cold cathode fluorescent backlights (CCFLs) and towards LED backlights.

The LED backlight implementation will allow for improved notebook battery life and displays that will maintain their initial levels of brightness longer into their respective life-cycles.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Apple could see added perks from its exclusive iPhone distribution deal with Cingular, such as royalty payouts for helping to grow the wireless carrier's subscriber base.

According to Citigroup Investment Research analyst Michael Rollins, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker could receive as much as $250 - $300 for each subscriber it helps lure to Cingular's network beginning this June. The payouts would likely come over the life of the service contracts and represent very high-margin revenue for Apple, he said.Rollins noted that the deal would be similar to an arrangement already in place between Cingular and Radio Shack, where the electronics retailer earns roughly $300 in total for closing new service contracts.

Although the terms of Apple's exclusive deal with Cingular have not been made public, the wireless carrier may be hoping to leverage such an incentive program with Apple to help offset expected declines in subscriber growth over the next few years.

After rising by an average of 25 percent in 2004, 2005 and 2006, global mobile phone subscriber growth is expected to fall to 12.8 percent in 2007, according to a research report released this week by iSuppli. The firm said the slowdown will continue in the years to come, with subscriber growth dropping to 9.6 percent in 2008, to 7 percent in 2009 and to 5.7 percent in 2010.

ThinkSecret reports that Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) development is "wrapping up faster than many at Apple even anticipated" and that the newest version of Mac OS X could be expected as soon as the end of March.

The rumor site also expects that Apple will launch the new versions of iLife '07 and iWork '07 alongside Leopard. They claim that both iLife and iWork were delayed due to the addition of some Leopard-specific features to the productivity suites.

Apple last stated that Leopard would still ship in spring and implied that the iLife suite would be updated soon.

TOKYO, Feb 11 (Reuters Life!) - A 70-year-old Japanese woman has gone on trial for bombarding a 79-year-old man with over 200 love letters, repeatedly cleaning his family tombstone and breaking a stalking ban, media reported over the weekend.

Prosecutors told a court in Ibaraki prefecture in eastern Japan the defendant had forced her way into the man's home seven times between July and October last year despite being ordered to stay away by police, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

Prosecutors said the woman had sent 206 love letters and cleaned the man's family grave site 85 times. After the prohibition order was issued, she then demanded 1.25 million yen ($10,300) from him for the amount she had paid to get a driver's license to travel to his home and for petrol costs.

Later, she reportedly started sending threatening letters to the man, saying "If it comes down to it, you could die," the paper quoted the indictment as saying.

Prosecutors are seeking a 10-month jail sentence because they believe there is a high chance the defendant could commit another offence.

A blustery day, windy and rainy. The rain may turn into snow later Wednesday afternoon in the city and on the coast.

In the nearby northwestern suburbs, sleet and freezing rain can result in extensive icing before ending as snow late in the evening. Well north and west of the city, the precipitation will remain snow and sleet. The high is estimated at 36 degrees.

Total snow and sleet accumulations will range from 1 to 3 inches on Long Island, coastal Connecticut and coastal New Jersey.

In the city and the nearby northwest suburbs the accumulation will near 3 inches.

The remainder of North Jersey, the Hudson Valley and Connecticut will see 3 to 6 inches.

MACAU (AP) -- Thousands of gamblers on Sunday jammed into a new casino owned by a local billionaire who is trying to fend off an invasion by Las Vegas tycoons who have been gobbling up market share in the booming Chinese territory of Macau.

Many of the punters who crowded into the Grand Lisboa -- shaped like a huge lotus flower covered in blinking lights -- were big-betting mainland Chinese who helped push Macau past the Las Vegas Strip last year as the world's gaming center.

The five-floor casino is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho, who held a monopoly on gaming in Macau for four decades until 2002. The former Portuguese enclave -- two islands and a peninsula off China's southeastern coast -- is the only place in China where casinos are legal.

In the past four years, some of the biggest names from Las Vegas -- Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Sheldon Adelson, Wynn Resorts Ltd.'s Stephen Wynn and MGM Mirage Inc. -- have been aggressively building casinos, luxury hotels and mega resorts in Macau.

Before he opened the 3 billion Hong Kong dollar ($384 million) Grand Lisboa on Sunday, the 85-year-old Ho acknowledged that his market share slipped to 63 percent last year, and analysts widely agree that it will erode further. But Ho, who has 17 casinos in Macau, said his new flagship Grand Lisboa would compete well with the Las Vegas-style casinos because of his long experience in the market.

"We are the leaders, not the followers," he said. "We know the city well."

Ho is battling a common perception that his casinos are stodgy, smoky and plagued with surly service.

His new five-floor casino was decorated with plush red carpet and silver light fixtures with strands of crystal beads. The gaming floors have 240 tables and 484 slot machines.

The 52-story building -- with a 430-room hotel that opens later this year -- has a round base that looks like a giant Faberge egg covered in lights the flash red, green and gold. The design of its tower was inspired by the long plumes of a Brazilian showgirl's headdress. The lobby is decorated with 580,000 Swarovski crystals, gold plated leaves and crystal balls.

HONG KONG, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Macau's annual gaming revenues for the first time beat those of the iconic Las Vegas Strip in 2006, and new casino openings this year should cement the former Portuguese colony as the gambling capital of the world.

The only place in gambling-mad China where casinos are legal, Macau opened its doors to international gaming firms such as Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN.O: Quote, Profile , Research) when a gaming monopoly held by casino mogul Stanley Ho expired in 2002.

Gaming revenues in the Chinese enclave have climbed quickly in the past four years, surging 23 percent in 2006 to US$7 billion to overtake the US$6.69 billion of "gaming wins" notched up by the Las Vegas Strip -- a figure that was announced over the weekend.

With six new casinos scheduled to open this year, the hype surrounding Macau shows no sign of abating.

Las Vegas Sands is scheduled to open its giant Venetian Macao casino complex in the summer as the centrepiece of the Cotai Strip -- a "neon alley" of casinos, shopping centres, hotels and theatres often dubbed "Asia's Las Vegas".

Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson, the world's 14th richest man, has said that his company will soon be a mainly Chinese enterprise, and quipped that Las Vegas should be called "America's Macau".

Gaming revenues for the whole of Las Vegas, including areas outside the main "strip" area, were still slightly higher than in Macau.

The arrival of foreign casino firms has fuelled a $24 billion construction boom and jaw-dropping gains in share prices for the handful of companies which offer investors a piece of the action.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

BRITNEY Spears ditched her bodyguards the other night and rolled up solo to Tenjune with a squad of her girlfriends. The hard-partying pop tart hit the club in the wee hours of yesterday morning, toting a CD full of songs from her unreleased album. "She asked DJ Berrie to play her album," said our insider, "and he put on four of her songs." Right before Spears showed up, Adam Sandler went in, ordered 10 pizzas and tipped the busboy who fetched them $200.

R&B legends Earth, Wind & Fire will also join Mary J. Blige and Ludacris on 49th Academy announced today that current multi-nominees singer/songwriter James Blunt and rapper T.I. will perform on the 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards, and six-time GRAMMY winners Earth, Wind & Fire will join previously announced performers Mary J. Blige and Ludacris in a special GRAMMY segment.

Singer/songwriter James Blunt has five GRAMMY nominations: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "You're Beautiful," Best Pop Vocal Album for Back To Bedlam, and Best New Artist.

Rapper T.I. has four nods for Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song for "What You Know," Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "My Love" (with Justin Timberlake), and Best Rap Album for King.

The 49th GRAMMY Awards will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 11, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). The show also will be supported on radio via Westwood One worldwide and XM Satellite Radio, and covered online at GRAMMY.yahoo.com.

The mystery and weirdness continues: A preliminary autopsy could not establish the cause of Anna Nicole Smith's sudden death. A third man has come forward to claim paternity of her 5-month-old baby. One of the would-be daddies is questioning whether the baby might be switched to thwart paternity testing.

Oh, and video at 11 of the last moments of Smith's life.

Smith's tabloid life is turning out to be just as tumultuous in death.

Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper reported Friday that it may be more than a month before he can determine what caused Smith, 39, to collapse and die Thursday in a casino hotel room on an Indian reservation near Hollywood, Fla. But Perper said there were no obvious signs of a crime — such as blunt force trauma, stabbing, gunshots or strangling — and no indication that she had ingested a massive amount of pills before her death.

The Grammys are the biggest celebration of the year for music fans, and one of the most cherished awards by artists.Awards in 13 major categories plus honorary tributes will be presented during the telecast. Awards in the remaining 95 categories will be presented in a non-televised ceremony from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST.

Mary J. Blige, whose album "The Breakthrough'' was perhaps the biggest in her career, was nominated for a leading eight Grammy Awards on Thursday, including R&B album, record and song of the year. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were also multiple nominees, garnering six.

Other multiple nominees were the Dixie Chicks, British newcomer James Blunt, John Mayer, Prince, and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Tina Burlett thought someone had broken into her house and stolen her custom-made, $5,000 wedding ring, so she called the police, who filed a report. But Burlett's grandmother already had a suspect in mind: the family pooch.

X-rays proved the grandmother right. The valuable bauble was inside the belly of Burlett's pit bull, Missy, who has a taste for diamonds.

"I couldn't believe it," Burlett told The Monroe Evening News for a story Thursday. "I didn't think so at the time, but it's funny now."

It made sense since Missy has been caught gnawing on VCRs, electric blankets and even Burlett's diamond earring.

Dr. Linda Fung of the Country Creek Animal Hospital said she wasn't surprised to learn that Missy swallowed jewelry.

"I did have a dog eat a watch once," Fung said. "Animals swallow a lot of stuff. It's not an unusual thing. We just made her throw it up."

The mother of former Playboy playmate and model Anna Nicole Smith blamed drugs Friday for her daughter's sudden death that ended an extraordinary tabloid life at just 39.

"I think she had too many drugs, just like Danny (Smith's late son)," her mother, Vergie Arthur, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday. "I tried to warn her about drugs and the people that she hung around with. She didn't listen."

"She was too drugged up," Arthur said. "By the last interview I saw of her, she was so wasted."

Smith's attorney, Ron Rale, said the one-time reality TV star had been ill for several days with a fever and was still depressed over the death five months ago of her 20-year-old son from what a private medical examiner determined was a combination of methadone and two antidepressants.

On Thursday, authorities say, a private nurse found Smith unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and called 911. A bodyguard performed CPR, Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said, but Smith was declared dead at a hospital.

Several detectives are reviewing the hotel surveillance tapes to see if they might provide a clue to what happened, Deputy Police Chief Michael Browne said Friday. He said they had interviewed everyone connected to the death and no one was under suspicion.

"Nothing about this death seems suspicious. We're not treating it that way," Browne said. "We're being very thorough. We're going to look at everything."

Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said an autopsy was under way Friday morning to try to determine the cause of death.

If Smith died of natural causes, the findings will likely be announced quickly, but definitive results could take weeks, said Dr. Joshua Perper, who was performing the autopsy.

Anna Nicole Smith's body is being examined in Florida after the blonde bombshell died following a collapse in her hotel room Thursday. Various news outlets are reporting details about illegal drugs found and claims that Smith choked to death in an overdose. Meanwhile an emergency hearing is scheduled for Friday in the paternity case surrounding her 5-month-old baby daughter. The curvaceous model's life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale -- Playboy centerfold, jeans and diet pill spokeswoman, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother -- and ended suddenly yesterday. She was 39.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy centerfold, actress and television personality who was famous, above all, for being famous, but also for being sporadically rich and chronically litigious, was found dead on Thursday in her suite at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla. She was 39, and the cause of her death was not immediately known.A personal nurse traveling with Ms. Smith called the hotel operator at 1:38 p.m. to report she had found Ms. Smith alone and unconscious in her sixth-floor suite, the police said. Ms. Smith’s bodyguard arrived a few minutes later, and paramedics who arrived after 2 p.m. tried to revive her with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, they said, but she was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 2:49 p.m. The office of the Broward County Medical Examiner was to perform an autopsy on Friday morning.

A paramedic with the Hollywood Fire Rescue Department told WTVJ-TV that Ms. Smith was not breathing when he and other rescue workers arrived in her suite, and that they had tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to restore her heartbeat.

“There was just no way of knowing how long she’d been down before she was discovered,” the paramedic, Capt. Dan Fitzgerald, told the television station. He said Ms. Smith’s companion, Howard K. Stern, was in the room when the rescue team arrived and had provided her medical history.

A lawyer for Ms. Smith, Ronald Rale, said she had complained of flulike symptoms earlier in the week and was “run down” from her recent troubles, including the death of her 20-year-old son and a paternity suit over her infant daughter. Mr. Rale would not say why she was visiting Florida, but a spokesman for the hotel, a flashy, sprawling complex on Seminole Indian land, said Ms. Smith had stayed there several times since it opened in 2004.

“She was trying her hardest,” Mr. Rale said in a packed news conference at his law office in Los Angeles. “I grieve for Anna Nicole that she had to endure what she had to endure. I just pray that that’s not what precipitated this.”The product of a hardscrabble Texas girlhood, Ms. Smith, at least in her mature years, was obtrusively voluptuous and almost preternaturally blonde. A ninth-grade dropout, she rose quickly from life as a small-town wife and mother to a high-profile career as a topless dancer; pinup; model; film actress; reality-show star; clothing designer; product endorser; and, briefly but most notably, wife of a tycoon nearly four times her age in a marriage that would eventually propel her to the United States Supreme Court in a fight over his billion-dollar estate.

For gossip columnists and supermarket tabloids, Ms. Smith’s life provided endless fodder. She often found herself in court, as either the complainant or the defendant. She publicly battled bankruptcy, drug addiction and wild fluctuations in her weight. And she was much in the headlines last fall when, over three days, her second child was born and her first died abruptly.

Ms. Smith was widely known to television viewers as the star of “The Anna Nicole Show,” broadcast on the E! network from 2002 to 2004. The show chronicled the minutiae of its heroine’s daily life, which showed her on visits to her dentists and giving Prozac to her dog. Ms. Smith was also familiar as a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a diet supplement. (In a class-action suit filed in Los Angeles this month, Ms. Smith and TrimSpa’s manufacturer were accused of false and misleading marketing.)

She appeared in several movies, among them “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) and “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” (1994). Her other cinematic credits include “Playboy Video Playmate Calendar” (1993); and “Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration” (2003).

Ms. Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Mexia, Tex. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and her mother, Virgie, a police officer, reared her alone. When she was a teenager, she married Billy Smith, a 16-year-old fry cook. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1986; the couple divorced in 1987.

Ms. Smith worked as a waitress, later becoming a topless dancer in Houston. After submitting photos to Playboy, she appeared on the cover of the March 1992 issue. In 1993, she was named Playmate of the Year.

In 1994, Ms. Smith married J. Howard Marshall II, a Texas oil billionaire and former professor of trusts and estates at Yale Law School whom she had met in the course of her dancing career. She was 26; he was 89. Married life for Ms. Smith was a bounteous stream of clothes and jewelry.

Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale -- jeans model, Playboy centerfold, widow of an octogenarian billionaire, reality-show subject, tragic mother -- died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator of the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.

Scott Wiese, a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, will legally change his name to that of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning after signing a pledge in front of a crowd at a Decatur bar last Friday night. He vowed to adopt Manning's name if the Bears lost Sunday's Super Bowl.

The final score was Colts 29, Bears 17.

So on Tuesday, Wiese went to the Macon County Courts Facility and started the process of changing his name.

"I made the bet, and now I've got to keep it," said the 26-year-old, who lives in Forsyth, just north of Decatur.

Wiese will now have to advertise his intention in the local newspaper - the Herald & Review - for several weeks and then have a judge give him the OK to become, legally anyway, Peyton Manning.

The men have little in common, Wiese acknowledges.

Manning the quarterback is 30 years old, stands 6-foot-5 and has a contract with the Colts worth more than $100 million.

Wiese is 5-foot-11 and works at a Staples office-supply store for somewhat less.

"I think I kind of represent all Bears fans," he said. "Not that I'm saying they're all idiots like me, but I represent their passion because I really care about my team, you know?"

While he pledged to take on the new identity, Wiese didn't make any promises about how long he would keep it.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I had quite the interesting conversation this weekend with a person who happened to be a former burglar. It was great timing because I was wondering if something like the skid mark underwear for hiding money would really work. I also figured that if you wanted to know the best place to hide your money from a burglar, a former burglar was the person to ask.

I started off simply and was not surprised by the answer to the question “where is the best place to hide your money?”

“At the bank,” he said with a sly grin

When I rephrased and asked where the best place to hide money and valuables in the house would be if you had such items there, I was taken a bit by surprise by his answer:

“It doesn’t matter how clever you think you are or where you hide it in your house, if I have enough time, I would be able to find where you stash your valuables,” he said bluntly. He then explained that what was much more important than the actual place where you hide your valuables is that you understand a burglar’s motivations. Basically, he has two:

1. To steal your money and valuables2. To get out of the house as quickly as possible with these goods

When you begin to think of it from this perspective, how you should hide your money changes a bit. Obviously, you don’t want to leave all your money in the places where the burglar will first look: dresser drawers, drawers by phones, desks, closets, a safe (if not bolted down), boxes, jewelry boxes, purse, etc.). That being said, you also don’t want to hide all of your money too well for the following reason:

If I can’t find money and valuables in the normal places I usually find them, I would continue to tear the house apart until I found something. Remember, the first rule is to to steal money and valuables. We’ll keep looking until we find something.”

Your best strategy, then, is to actually leave some money in obvious places for the burglar to quickly find (the same applies if you keep all your money in the bank). This can not only save your other stash of money, but may actually keep the burglar from destroying your place as he looks for where you have hidden your money. If they believe they may have found the cash that you have in the house, they are much less likely to keep looking (remember, they want to get out asap). In the end, if you hide all your money well, you may win a moral victory in not letting the burglar find the money, but you’ll likely have much more damage done to your place that will end up costing you more in the long run.

The next obvious question was “How much money should you leave for the burglar to find?”

“It depends on the area where you live. If you are in a upscale community and only leave $100, I would assume there is more and keep looking. In a different part of town $100 would convince me I found all the money that was there and leave.”

A NASA astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections was charged with attempted first degree murder Tuesday.

"The intent was there to do serious bodily injury or death,'' Jones said, referring to a new steel mallet, knife, rubber tubing and large garbage bags that police found in her possession.

Lisa Marie Nowak, a Navy captain and married mother of three, had already been charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery, and a judge had said Tuesday morning that she could be freed on $15,500 bail provided she stay away from the other woman and wear a monitoring device.

She was about to be released when she was notified that she wouldn't be going anywhere, Orange County jail spokesman Allen Moore said.

When Jeff Zucker is named the new chief executive of NBC Universal today, succeeding Bob Wright, he will be completing one of the most spectacular ascents of any recent media executive: from part-time sports researcher in 1986 to corporate C.E.O two decades later.And now for the hard part.

According to NBC executives, Hollywood producers and agents, and many of the financial analysts who follow NBC, Mr. Zucker, 41, faces many pressing issues. Foremost among them: how he will deal with the rapid technological and financial changes that are throwing many traditional media businesses into upheaval. He will also have to choose a team of executives to back his efforts as he sets a new direction for the company.

Mr. Zucker will answer questions about his supporting cast today shortly after he is formally named C.E.O., a senior NBC executive said yesterday.

Mr. Zucker is leaving the job he currently holds, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, but no one will be named to fill that job, the NBC executive said.

But Mr. Zucker is expected to elevate three other senior NBC executives, effectively dividing many of his current responsibilities among them.

CUPERTINO, California and LONDON—Apple® Inc. and The Beatles’ company Apple Corps Ltd. are pleased to announce the parties have entered into a new agreement concerning the use of the name “Apple” and apple logos which replaces their 1991 Agreement. Under this new agreement, Apple Inc. will own all of the trademarks related to “Apple” and will license certain of those trademarks back to Apple Corps for their continued use. In addition, the ongoing trademark lawsuit between the companies will end, with each party bearing its own legal costs, and Apple Inc. will continue using its name and logos on iTunes®. The terms of settlement are confidential.

Commenting on the settlement, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO said, “We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks. It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future.”

Commenting on the settlement on behalf of the shareholders of Apple Corps, Neil Aspinall, manager of Apple Corps said, “It is great to put this dispute behind us and move on. The years ahead are going to be very exciting times for us. We wish Apple Inc. every success and look forward to many years of peaceful co-operation with them.”

Monday, February 05, 2007

AccuWeather is calling for Monday afternoon to be sunny and windy with a high of 18 degrees, with AccuWeather RealFeel temperatures near zero.

Monday night was expected to be mainly clear, breezy and frigid, with a low of 8 degree in Midtown and lows of 0 degrees in the suburbs. The AccuWeather RealFeel temperatures will be between 10 and 20 below zero.

AccuWeather forecast Tuesday as partly sunny and windy, a high of 22 degrees. Wednesday and Thursday were expected to be more of the same except higher peak temperatures of 29 degrees.

Experts say bitterly cold weather can be dangerous if you are not properly prepared. That means dress in layers and put on gloves and hats.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor whose popularity soared after his response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, moved closer to a full-fledged campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday. In a sign that he's serious about running for the White House, the two-term mayor was filing a so-called "statement of candidacy'' with the Federal Election Commission.

Apple Inc. is urging some iPod and iTunes users to hold off on upgrading computers to Windows Vista, warning that the iTunes music software may not work well with the new operating system from rival Microsoft Corp.

Apple said iTunes may work with many Vista computers, but the company knows of some compatibility problems and recommends that users wait until it resolves the issues with an iTunes update in the next few weeks, the company said in a statement provided Friday by spokesman Derick Mains. The iTunes software is key to synching music on computers with iPod portable players.

Microsoft launched Vista, its first major overhaul of Windows in five years, on Tuesday.

Though Microsoft and Apple are partners in some cases - iTunes works with Windows PCs and Microsoft Office has a version for Macs - the two are also entrenched rivals. With Vista's launch, Apple ramped up its ad campaign attacks against Windows.

Adobe's new professional workflow and RAW-image-processing program will be available for an introductory price through April.

After a year-long beta period, Adobe has released the final version of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, a program designed to enable professional photographers to process and manage large volumes of image files. PopPhoto.com got an advance copy of the software, and our Hands On report can be found here.

In addition to providing workflow and file-management tools, Lightroom offers advanced raw file processing functions. The software currently supports 150 camera RAW formats, in addition to JPEG, TIFF, and the DNG archival raw format. Lightroom 1.0 includes new features that were added after the last beta version, 4.1, including advanced keyword tools, improved importing and file-management capabilities, enhanced versioning tools, and a Key Metadata Browser.

Lightroom is available in both Mac and Windows versions, and is a Universal Binary application that can run natively on PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh systems. The program can be pre-ordered at www.adobe.com/store for an introductory price of $199 through April 30, 2007. It will become available to purchasers in mid-February 2007. When the introductory price expires, Lightroom will be available for an estimated street price of $299. Current users of the Lightroom beta will have access to the program until February 28, 2007.

Pablo Gonzalez, a Prada shoe-wearing cell phone connoisseur who jumps from one new handset to the next, is ready to ditch his $1,000 touch-screen cell phone for Apple's iPhone when it becomes available in June.

Tark Abed, on the other hand, just got the new Samsung BlackJack smart phone a month ago. The industrial designer at Palo Alto-based Speck Design isn't keen on spending $500 even though he finds the iPhone's sleek interface alluring and innovative.

"I upgraded to an unlimited data plan and got the BlackJack for $149," he said, "and that's a lot of phone already for $149."

Their divergent views underscore why Apple Inc.'s much-hyped seminal cell phone is all the rage and why, at the same time, incumbent rivals are stirred but say they are not shaken.

The iPhone got everybody -- from techie bloggers to late-night TV hosts -- talking when it arrived fashionably late on the wireless communications scene. Would-be rivals are welcoming the challenge but questioning Apple's claim that the iPhone is "revolutionary."

Apple's competitors predict that even as the gadget will likely boost the company's fortunes, it will have limited market share and fall short of the successes Apple has seen with its iPod portable music player. They contend some of the phone's much-touted features -- such as its touch screen, movement sensors and music player -- are not innovative or new.

"They're just jumping into the party where everyone else is," said Peter Skarzynski, a senior vice president at Samsung Electronics Co.'s telecommunications unit in North America.

Apple is getting in at a time when competition in the cell phone business is, as ThinkEquity Partners analyst Jonathan Hoopes puts it, "as hot as Hades."

Because nearly everyone already has a wireless device of some sort, the success of the iPhone will depend on whether Apple's notoriously slick marketing machine can persuade consumers to replace their current phones with an iPhone that costs $500 or more. In some cases they'll have to switch carriers as Apple's gadgets will work only through Cingular Wireless.

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About Me

Tonylimo has been a chauffeur/actor in New York City for over all most a quarter of a century.Celebrities that he has driven: Jackie Kennedy Onassis,Mike Tyson, Serena Williams, Joe Namath, Sally Field, Rodney Dangerfield, Micheal Douglas, , Faye Dunaway, Truman Capote and countless others..movies that he appeared in are Bronx Tale, Batman Gothic. TV's Law and Order...Tony has had an interesting life as a New York City chauffeur in 25 years with some intriguing stories.